Yawgoo Valley has long been the lone remaining ski resort in Rhode Island.
In 2022 and 2023, Yawgoo was only able to keep one of its six top-to-bottom trails open. Though this winter has been a much better year for snow, the resort’s Outback trail has been closed all season because there hasn’t been enough snow cover to safely open it. Snow tubing, which requires even more snow, has been closed as well
The variation in winter weather is a direct result of climate change. Rhode Island is the first state in the Lower 48 whose average temperature has risen by more than 2 degrees Celsius since 1895. And, over the past five years, the pace of New England’s temperature rise has only continued to increase. Findings in the journal Climate indicate that southern New England lost over 30 to 40% of its snow cover days between 2000 and 2025, one of the fastest declines in the world.
Despite its small size, Yawgoo has cultivated an immense presence in the local community over the past 60 years. Its five-week Learn to Ski program has 1,300 kids enrolled — and a waiting list. The resort has 375 season-pass holders and can sell hundreds of daily passes.
A sense of purpose has sustained Yawgoo for decades — but it is also what makes the resort’s future increasingly worrisome as Yawgoo stares down the barrel of climate change.
This work was published by The Washington Post in February 2026.
Yawgoo Valley Ski Area, the morning of January 21, 2026.
Clay Hartman uses a groomer to distribute “whales” of snow made the evening before by snow machines.
Danielle D’Andrea, operations manager, helps a customer purchase a lift ticket.
Sage Marshall, 3, prepares to ski for the first time.
An old photo of Maxwell deWardener, Tracy Hartman’s father and the previous owner of the resort, skiing at Yawgoo Valley Ski Area in the 1980s.
Tracy Hartman, the CEO of Yawgoo Valley Ski Area.
Michael Dignan helps his nephew Joseph Invencion, 1, ski for the first time.
Yawgoo’s Learn to Ski lesson program has 1300 kids in it, plus a waiting list.
Joel Daglieri, an operations manager at Yawgoo Valley Ski Area, turns on the diesel motor used for snow making in Exeter, Rhode Island on the evening of January 20, 2026. The motor pulls water from a nearby lake, which is pumped to snow machines via hydrants and fire hoses.
Joe Marfeo, head snow maker, turns on a snow machine.
